


To Coexist

by ILikeTurkey



Series: Gratsu/Natray prompts [1]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Curse Breaking, Domestic, Living Together, M/M, Mistakes, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Power Swap, Rating May Change, gratsuweek2018, hoo boy, prompt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 08:03:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15311079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ILikeTurkey/pseuds/ILikeTurkey
Summary: “The dragonslayer holds his free hand in front of his face and summons his flames— except that’s not what comes out. When tendrils of ice shoot from Natsu’s fingertips, he looks over to Gray, who’s equally horrified at the fire arcing out from his palm.”ORNatsu and Gray mess around and end up bound together with swapped powers.





	To Coexist

**Author's Note:**

> So this work is the result of the gratsuweek2k18 prompts ‘Magic' and 'Swap’ Enjoy?

They’re on a mission given to them by some creepy old guy who lives in the woods; Gray’s just now realizing that it probably wasn’t a good idea to accept it. He’s staring at some type of fluorescent purple orb with swirls of pale green in it, and Natsu gets closer to the pedestal it’s sitting on.

“Don’t touch it.” Gray warns and Natsu scowls at him.

“I’ll do what I want.” The dragonslayer childishly snaps back, then slaps his hand on the the sphere for emphasis, which turns red at the touch. “See, nothing’s wrong with it, Gray.” Natsu says, grinning. Then Gray’s physically relaxing his shoulders because he half expected the globe to explode or something, since most of these items here are _cursed_ — according to the old man.

It’s a bad idea, to ignore the warnings, but there’s something about this particular artifact that’s got Gray curious, so he ends up standing across from Natsu with his hand on the orb quicker than he can ask himself, _“What the fuck am I doing?”_

There’s a calm thrum where his hand meets the cool surface of the crystal, then a jolt shoots through his arm and the sphere’s turning blue. He glances at Natsu—whose eyes are dilated and glued to the orb like he’s in a trance— and calls out his name.

Natsu doesn’t move, doesn’t flinch; like he didn’t hear Gray at all, and that’s definitely _not good_ because Natsu’s never calm enough to stay still for more than a few seconds. Gray jerks away from the ball and moves around to where Natsu’s frozen in place, waves his hand in front of his eyes that ultimately goes unnoticed, then shakes his shoulder. As soon as Gray’s hand meets Natsu’s skin, his vision whites out.

* * *

He wakes up on the floor a few moments later with a headache, and something feels so wrong, but he doesn’t understand what. He sits up and waits for the pressure in his skull to ease before opening his eyes.

Natsu’s kneeled next to him, eyes shot impossibly wide and focused on the floor, so Gray follows the gaze— then blinks once, twice, three times before registering what he’s looking at. He stares at Natsu.

“what. the. _fuck_.” Gray breathes.

Natsu doesn’t answer, just picks up his hand and brings Gray’s with it, eyes and mouth gaping wider at the full sight.

“I told you not to touch it.” Natsu says a breath later, and Gray punches him square in the face. 

* * *

 

“Can you fix this?” Gray asks the old man when he returns with Natsu and the artifact, holding up his—their—hands so the creep could see what he’s referring to.

The old man looks at Gray, then at Natsu and chuckles. “You’ve gotten yourselves into quite a mess, haven’t you?”

Natsu frowns and takes a few steps towards the man, involuntarily pulling Gray with him. “Think this is funny, you old bag?!” He practically yells. _“Answer the goddamn question.”_

The old man waits for a moment, calmly looking at the dragonslayer. “Yes. This is quite entertaining, truth be told.”

 _Wrong answer,_ Gray thinks before pulling Natsu a safe distance from the man.

“You know that isn’t what he means,” Gray says to the sleazy old bastard. “I’ll ask you again. _Can you fix this?”_

The man sits down and shakes his head. “No. But you can.” Then looks at Natsu, who’s still fuming behind Gray, and adds “It’ll take the both of you.”

He picks up the bag that’s holding the crystal orb, uses his magic to draw runes on his hand before taking the ball out. “I told you that this was cursed, did I not?”

 _‘Fuck off,’_ Gray hears from somewhere in his head.

The old man continues. “This artifact happens to be hexed by a binding method, explaining the bands around your wrists. Which is _precisely_ why I told you not to touch anything-”

“Just tell us how to fix it.” Natsu orders.

“For a brat, you are _incredibly_ rude.” The old man points out.

 _“I’m 20._ ” Natsu growls.

“Oh for the love of Mavis, _shut up Natsu.”_ Gray hisses. “Please just tell us how to get rid of this.”

The old man waits for a moment, studying the orb. “It feeds off of energy. Carnal energy, to be exact.”

Gray goes rigid. _Carnal energy? So that means—_

“Okay so what does that mean?” Natsu asks impatiently. “We fight it out or something? That sounds easy. Let me beat your ass, Gray.”

Oh how he wishes Natsu were right.

The old man just smiles. “I’m afraid that you have to explain it to the idiot. I appreciate our business.” He then shoves a wad of cash at Gray, does a strange dance, and disappears.

“Where the hell’s he going?!” Natsu yells directly into Gray’s ear.

“We’re done with him, Natsu.” He says, taking a step away from Natsu to put a bit of space in between them. “We should head back to the guild and let Levy look at this.”

* * *

  
When Gray’s done explaining their predicament, just as expected, Gajeel starts laughing.

“You have to do _what?_ Well that’s fuckin’ rich!”

“Don’t push it.” Gray warns, sinking down into a chair, prompting Natsu to do the same. They briefly glance at each other.

“You bastards are still talking circles around me,” Natsu hisses at everyone. _“How do we break this?!”_

Gajeel’s still snickering like an idiot in the corner, and Levy’s looking at Natsu with a pitiful fake smile. “This curse can’t be broken, Natsu. Only fulfilled. I’m sure you’ve heard this already.”

 _‘But that doesn’t mean I understand what the fuck you’re talking about.’_ Gray isn’t even thinking about anything right now, but his subconscious is going fucking wild. Strange.

“Can you at least tell us anything else about this?” Gray tries, and levy nods.

“So I searched the library and came up with this,” she says, pulling a charred book from her satchel, drops it on the table with a pilfered thud and immediately begins to flip through withered pages. Gray only catches glimpses of symbols and diagrams and languages of the book, but his head begins to spin nonetheless. How can Levy— let alone _anyone_ — read that shit?

She stops on a page Gray won’t even try to decipher, skims through the small text, then holds her place by using her finger. “According to what you’ve told me about the links, the curse could only take hold if one, you two have mutual connecting energies towards each other: and two, both participants were willing to partake in it,” Levy informs, and Natsu makes a face like he _still_ has no idea about what’s going on.

“But neither one of us wanted this to happen.” Natsu says, and Gray’s quick to disagree.

“To hell with that,” he says darkly, cobalt eyes snapping to Natsu. “You willingly slapped your goddamn hand on that ball of misfortune when I told you not to fucking touch it, so don’t you _dare_ pull that shit.” Technically it’s Gray’s fault, too. But he’s not going to admit it right now.

The table’s gone quiet. Natsu’s eyes are wide and his mouth’s moving like he’s having trouble comprehending what led up to this moment; he doesn’t know what to say next. Which is something Gray’s relieved about because he doesn’t want to hear Natsu utter another _word_.

_‘Damn. That’s hot.’_

Gray’s full body twitches and he thinks he’s going insane, judging by all of these voices spouting random bullshit in his head.

They’re both just staring at each other for a while, breathing in the tense air without breaking eye contact, until Levy pipes in. “There’s more to it, guys. Please don’t kill each other.”

Natsu’s first to look at Levy, and Gray notices the flush on the man’s cheeks when he turns away. He doesn’t say anything about it.

Levy straightens her glasses and continues. “This particular curse isn’t an evil one, the magic used is completely pure.”

Gajeel snorts from where he’s lurking in the background. They all ignore him.

“It’s meant to tie newlyweds closer to each other-”

Natsu suddenly shoots up, cutting Levy off mid sentence _“Newlyweds?!_ Me and this stripper aren’t married!” The blush on Natsu’s cheeks darken, and Gray’s beginning to wonder what the fuck’s wrong with the dragonslayer. He’s been on edge ever since the bands were placed around their wrists— Gray doesn’t necessarily blame him for that; he’s a bit put off, also. But there’s just something about him that’s _odd—_

“Cool it.” Gray says, and Natsu grudgingly sits back down. _Strangely obedient,_ Gray thinks, watching Natsu’s face contort with confusion.

“What else should we know about this?” Gray asks Levy moments later, and she sticks her nose back into the book.

“It says that you’ll be able to hear each other’s thoughts and—“ she pauses.

“Hear each other’s thoughts?” Gray asks and Gajeel barks out a laugh.

 _“That’s strange,”_ Levy mumbles to herself, turning the page. She reads some more, worries her lip, then looks at the bound mages nervously.

“Hey,” Levy says standing up with the book and takes a few steps back. “Can you two, uh, activate your magic?”

Natsu shrugs, then asks suspiciously. “Why’re you backing away?”

Levy laughs nervously.

That moment, the feeling of wrongness comes back to Gray at full force, makes him feel nauseous when he holds his hand out to will fourth his ice. Natsu’s facial expression implies that he’s feeling the same.

The dragonslayer holds his free hand in front of his face and summons his flames— except that’s not what comes out. When tendrils of _ice_ shoot from Natsu’s fingertips, he looks over to Gray, who’s equally horrified at the fire arcing out from his palm.

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me what ya think! Or don’t, your choice.


End file.
